Two Way Stretch

Robert Day(1960)

Review

Our Score

by Tom Hutchinson

Fans of Peter Sellers rate this British venture, made before he started to believe his own publicity, as one of the best things he did. It's a prison comedy that predates Porridge with a snarling stand-off between cocky convict Sellers, his cellmates Bernard Cribbins and David Lodge, and paranoid warden Lionel Jeffries. The plot - about a group of prisoners trying to break back into jail after a heist - is wonderfully developed and there are delightful cameos along the way from Irene Handl, Wilfrid Hyde White and Liz Fraser.

Summary

Three convicts plot to sneak out of prison, steal a fortune in diamonds from a maharajah, and then creep back in to provide themselves with the perfect alibi. However, their seemingly flawless plan is threatened by the arrival of a strict new prison officer. Comedy, starring Peter Sellers, Bernard Cribbins and Lionel Jeffries.